Category Archives: Government Oppression

Journalists and political activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan have blamed Islamabad for subjugating their voice and harassment by using draconian anti-terrorism laws. A number of them recently gathered at Gilgit Press Club to deliberate and discuss the deteriorating standards of press due to government policies.

Wajahat Ali, a journalist based in Gilgit said, "The previous Chief Minister didn't allow (postponed) the law for the right to information, access to information. We want that to be restored now". "And if that doesn't happen then we will use different methods from writing to exposing them. If they want to go to the courts then let them go. If we have to do real journalism, if the government wants to see us as the fourth pillar, then it should allow 19A, so that we have access to information and we can educate the common people", he said.

For years, the journalists in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan have been demanding their rights. However, to their dismay, they have not been accorded any freedom. In fact, the government has ensured the information is denied and their voices are muzzled.

Even the fundamental right of freedom of speech has been suppressed through intimidation or force. The local newspapers are forced to carry news praising the works of the federal or local government... else they face censorship.

Those who dare to raise their voice against the government are slapped with charges as grave as sedition. A number of them have been sent behind the bars for the same. And not just individuals but the entire media house is locked if it tries to publish the reality.

In 2017, Pakistan ordered the shutdown of Mujadala, largest circulated Urdu daily of Rawlakot in PoK as it carried a survey report that 73 per cent of the people living in PoK want independence from Pakistan. Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, an exiled political activist from PoK said, "The journalism sector of Pakistan occupied Kashmir is very much subjugated. Most of the news doesn't reach the local populace due to which many of them think that there is no problem at all and people are free here; while at other places (where the press is free) people know that they are not getting their rights".

He added, "Journalism is a tough job here. Every newspaper owner lives under threat here because he is told that if they publish any news about the people who are against two-nation theory then his declaration (licence) will be cancelled". Over the years, a number of journalists have been charged under Schedule IV of Anti-terrorism act. Others have been pressurized to write biased reports shrouding unabated violations of human rights in the illegally occupied territories.

Only those who have fallen in line with the government's versions are safe in the region, while others are living constantly under an even expanding shadow of fear. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Journalism in PoK: A saga of intimidation, oppression and censorship - Devdiscourse

One of the first signs of the military coup that overthrew Myanmars democratically elected civilian government was a Facebook Live video of regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han being arrested, which was posted by her husband.

Soldiers stormed Pa Pa Hans home around 3 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2021. While her young daughter wailed and her husband pleaded to see an arrest warrant, Pa Pa Han stalwartly grabbed her handbag and a coat and left with the soldiers.

Other parliamentarians were simultaneously being roused from bed and arrested across Myanmar by soldiers who claimed election fraud had occurred in the November elections. By daybreak, Myanmar was under military rule.

Ever since, thousands of people in Myanmar most of them young, many of them women have been protesting the coup daily and demanding the restoration of democracy. More than 770 civilians had been killed and over 3,738 detained as of May 6, according to the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Myanmar, formerly called Burma, is a conservative country with rigid gender roles. A 2015 survey rated it Southeast Asias most traditional society when it comes to family structure, deference to elders, respect for authority figures and conflict avoidance.

Yet Myanmars Generation Z activists, born between 1997 to 2012, are defying many of these social norms with their protests and busting gender stereotypes while theyre at it.

One act of creative resistance on March 8 involved hanging womens sarongs on clotheslines above streets across Yangon. The young protesters suspected that many soldiers would avoid going underneath the clotheslines for fear that doing so would diminish their hpon a kind of mojo that belongs to only men.

They guessed right: Soldiers sent to arrest the protesters climbed atop their army trucks to clear the clotheslines before passing underneath, giving protesters extra time to avoid arrest.

Such beliefs around hpon reflect a pervasive concept in Myanmar that men are superior to women and born with special spiritual protection. In a 2015 Asia Barometer survey, 60% of Myanmar respondents agreed that if they could have only one child, a boy would be preferable, compared with 46% in the Philippines and 30% in Cambodia.

Having grown up in Myanmar, I was raised to believe in these same gender roles and sexist superstitions. After being exposed to a U.S. liberal arts education, I came to question the gender inequality buried in traditions and Burmese culture. Now, as a psychologist who teaches about sex and gender, among other topics, I am tracking how Myanmars young protesters are rejecting sexism and subverting gender norms to their advantage.

After the sarong tactic, some of those activists questioned whether using sarongs to deter the soldiers might itself have been sexist because it played into old misogynistic superstitions. Shortly after the March 8 protest, activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi wrote on Twitter that womens clothing should be flown proudly as our flag, our victory not used as a weapon.

Spousal rape and domestic violence is still legal and pervasive in Myanmar, and when it occurs people often blame the victims rather than the perpetrators.

On April 20, a 17-year-old coup protester named Shwe Yamin Htet, who had just been released from jail after six days, reported on social media that a 19-year-old female protester detained with her had been beaten with a metal pipe and kicked in her groin and that her vagina was bleeding due to the kicking.

Rather than express outrage at the assault, some on social media worried that publicizing the young womens sexual abuse would bring shame to her and asked Shwe to remove the post. She did not oblige.

A few women have defied the odds to obtain power in Myanmar including the countrys deposed leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who came to power in 2012. Rather than seeing her as an inspirational symbol of womens leadership, however, researchers Mala Htun and Francesca Jensenius reported in their 2020 study that most people in Myanmar view Aung San Suu Kyi simply as an exception.

Before the coup, women held 15% of political posts in Myanmars civilian government. Now, just one woman sits on the coup regimes 17-member state administration council.

The military has run Myanmar as a dictatorship on and off since 1962. In addition to airstrikes and attacks with heavy artillery, it is known to use sexual violence as a weapon in its long-standing effort to crush separatist movements in the border regions of Myanmar.

Self-identifying ethnic Burmese make up 32% of the population. For nearly six decades, several ethnic minority groups the Kachin, Karen and Karenni have been fighting for autonomy and self-determination. For just as long, the Myanmar army has violently suppressed them.

Human rights groups report widespread and systematic rape in Karen state, in southwest Myanmar, over many decades. When women are captured by the military, soldiers use them as porters to carry shells during the day. At night, they may be gang-raped.

In Kayah state, another conflict zone north of Karen, women generally do not go out alone even for basics like groceries, because the military is known to target women.

The military oppression and gender violence so familiar to rural Burmese in conflict zones is now affecting the urban middle and working classes groups that were long sheltered from the countrys borderland conflicts. On April 24, soldiers were reported to have physically abused a transgender woman who spoke out against the coup online, forcing her to change into male clothing before arresting her.

Despite the risks, women continue to participate in the front lines of Myanmars fight for democracy.

Some have been arrested, including Thin Thin Aung, co-founder of a leading independent news site called Mizzima, and union leader Myo Myo Aye. Others were shot dead, like Khukhu Cilena, of the womens rights group Women for Justice.

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After the coup, a group of pro-democracy advocates formed a parallel government called the National Unity Government led by the elected lawmakers, which is financially supporting the civil disobedience movement. Myanmars opposition lawmakers are also busting glass ceilings: Ethnic minority party affiliates make up 25% of its 32 members, women make up 28%, and one member identifies as LGBT a first in Myanmar.

The National Unity Government and Generation Z offer Burmese society a vision of a more equitable, inclusive future should democracy prevail.

See more here:

Myanmar's anti-coup protesters defy rigid gender roles and subvert stereotypes about women to their advantage - The Conversation US

Coordinator for the PSA, Shereens Saloojee says Saturday marks 73 years of Palestinian Occupation and Zionist Settler Colonialism.

These seven decades have been characterised by oppression, aggression, racism, and a genocidal siege on the indigenous people of Palestine, says Saloojee.

To mark our solidarity with the people of Palestine and noting the ongoing massacre of innocent civilians especially in Gaza, we call on all freedom-loving people who value humanity to join us in our call to government to break all relations with apartheid Israel.

The motorcade is set to leave from Rose Park in Lenasia at 13:00 and from Orange Road outside Marks Park in Emmarentia at 14:00.

It will then proceed to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown where it will conclude with a rally, adds Saloojee.

ALSO READ:Political solution needed to end Israel-Palestine conflict, says expert

The Department of International Relations and Corporation (Dirco) has condemned the attacks on Palestine civilians.

South Africa therefore strongly condemns the unjust attacks by Israel on Palestinian civilians and calls on Israel to immediately stop all its hostilities and comply with international law.

"The continued escalation of attacks by Israel on Palestinians in Gaza is totally unjust and shameful, particularly the targeting of the most vulnerable section of the Palestinian community, children, women and the elderly," says spokesperson Clayson Monyela.

"South Africa calls on all countries in the Middle East to respond positively to the Arab Leagues foreign ministers' plan to immediately convene an emergency meeting aimed at mediation."

Excerpt from:

PSA to host motorcade calling on government to break relations with 'Apartheid Israel' - Jacaranda FM

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta -The government seems to be repeating the history of colonialism in this nation. The outcome could be like that in Indonesia in 1945.

The governmnt of President Joko Widodo seems to be repeating the dark history of this nation. In the past, the Dutch colonialists exploited our natural resources and detained and killed Indonesians. Now the people of Papua are experiencing the same thing. They are oppressed and sidelined in their own land. The Ducth used to arrogantly call us "extremists" and "inlanders" - in dismissive tones. Frequently the people living in the Dutch East Indies were insulted and referred to as "monkeys." We were treated unfairly, became victims of racial discrimantion and finally woke up and fought back.

It is as though history is being repeated. Papuan students in Surabaya were called "monkeys" in the days before Indonesian Independence Day commemoration two years ago. This racist abuse was wrong. It is no surprise that thousands of Papuan responded to this incident with large-scale demonstrations and widespread opposition.

As if that were not enough, now the Indoneian government has officially applieed the "terrorist" label to the Papuan independece movement. Announced by coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud Md. on Thursday, April 29, this mistaken policy could add to the number of victims on both sides of this dispute. Once again, civilians face the threat of becoming scapegoats.

It must be said that the approach used by the government to resolve the long running problems of Papua have been wrong from the start. It is not clear if it realizes it or not, but Jakarta strategy bears a very close resemblance to the methods used by the Dutch colonial administration decades ago. The "terrorist" label applied by Mahfud to the opposition movement in Papua is very similar to the "extremist" term used by the Dutch colonial authorities to descirbe the Indonesian indepndence movement.

Apart from applying the terrorist label and increasing the number of poice and militay personnel in Papua, the Indonesian government is also offering sweeteners if the opposition is stopped. In the bill to extend spcial autonomy in Papua, the governmnt is trying to tempt people by offering an increase in the budget for the easternmost province. Previously, the Papuan government only received two percent of the total general allocation funds, but now this is to be increased to 2.25 percent. However, so far most of this special autonomy funding has gone to the Papuan elite. According to Novermber 2020 data from the Central Statistics Agency, Papua and West Papua are still the poorest provinces in Indonesia.

Another policy planned by the government is to divide Papua into several smaller provinces. The government claims that this will improve governance in Papua. But there is also a hidden hope that this division of the provinces will result in the Papuan elite having less time to oppose Jakarta. The tactics of sharing out money and divide and conquer appear to have been taken directly from the guidebook written by the colonia powers in the past.

We know that the Dutch strategy failed, and that Indonesia became independent in 1945. This means that we could suffer the same fate as the Dutch if the mistaken approach in Papua is continued. It is not too late for the government to change direction. President Jokowi could begin by admitting that there are human rights abuses in Papua that must be properly investigated.

The roots of the problem in Papua are not only related to economy, as the cenral government claims. building roads, airports and bridges will not heal the hurt and the feelings of oppression felt by the people of Papua. The way to resolve the Papuan problem that Jokowi has chosen will lead to Indonesia acting like a colonizer, something that the 1945 COnstitution says must be erased from the face of the earth.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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Repeating History in Papua - Opinion en.tempo.co - Tempo.co English

In the last few years, many elected leaders have attacked voting rights, cast doubt on free and fair elections, and served private interests over the public good. To pull American democracy back from the brink, we must use the full force of the lawand four laws will, if passed, set us on the right track.

Lets pretend, for a moment, that its November 2022election season. Youre a proud Georgian, born and raised, and youre ready to cast your ballot. What do you do?

Well, voting is about to get harder. If you want an absentee ballot, youll need a state ID. If you dont have one, too badand if you do, youd better hurry: You have half the time you had before to request an absentee ballot. Did you use a ballot drop-box in 2020? Good luck finding one now. And if you do everything rightif you show up at the right polling place at the right time (easier said than done) and wait in line for hours in the sweltering Georgian heat, nobodynot your friend, neighbor, or pastorcan give you water to drink.

These are real requirements of a real law, rammed through by state legislators in March. And Georgia isnt unique. Across the country, legislators are cracking down on voting accessslashing early voting, purging voter rolls, and closing polling sites. They do so in the name of election security, but these reforms are new clothes for the old Jim Crow. Rather than make elections safer and fairer, they aim to make voters whiter and wealthier.

Consider photo-ID requirements. On the surface, they might seem benigndoesnt everybody have a photo ID? In fact, millions dont, and Black, Latino, and Indigenous people are less likely than white people to have them. Black voters are also more likely to take advantage of early voting, and in the 2020 elections in Georgia, more Black voters relied on mail-in voting than white voters.

These legislators may feign innocence, but they know who these insidious bills will hurt: Black people, young people, urbanites, and other voters of color. In fact, thats the point. For these officials, its hard to appeal to diverse constituents, and easier to keep them from voting at all.

So how do officials justify these measures? Often, with lies. By peddling falsehoodsthat voter fraud is rampant (its not), noncitizens vote in droves (they dont), and the 2020 election was stolen (it wasnt)unethical leaders can rationalize their assaults on free and fair elections. These lies have consequences, not only for those robbed of their rights, but for democracy as a whole: On January 6th, Trump supporters, wrongly convinced that Trump had won re-election, stormed the US Capitol in what many deemed an attempted coup.

But all is not lost. To restore American democracy, we must start with four laws.

If enacted, the law would:

In the US today, elections arent competitivein 2016, only 4% of House races were considered toss-ups. Because only one party can represent people in single-seat districts, millions of Americans are represented by leaders they oppose. Worse, this system makes it possible for a single party to control leadership in the House even if another party wins more votes.

The Fair Representation Act (FRA) would change this. If enacted, the law would:

That law, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, remains one of the nations greatest legislative achievements, a triumph of integrity and equity over racism and oppression. Among many things, the VRA required some states, those with histories of discriminatory voting practices, to get federal permission to make changes to their voting laws. This preclearance requirement kept jurisdictions from installing new barriers to voting, barriers that usually hobble the rights of Black and Brown voters. But in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the VRAs preclearance requirement, a devastating assault on voting protections.

The JLVRAA, named after the late civil rights activist and House Representative John Lewis, would restore preclearance, expand the types of voting changes that would require it, and let federal courts scrutinize a broader array of potentially discriminatory voting laws. For decades, the VRA worked to protect people of color from voting discrimination. It is vital that the JLVRAA pick up the mantle.

More than 700,000 people call DC homemore people than live in Vermont or Wyoming. Per capita, DC residents pay more in federal taxes than any state, and men in DC must, like all US men, register for the draft. But while DC residents have the same responsibilities as residents of states, they dont have the same rights: They have neither senators nor voting representatives. In other words, the residents of DC endure taxation without representation.

This is not only undemocratic, but racist. Washington, DC is a historically Black city, and nearly half of DC residents are Black. The US government has long overrepresented white people and underrepresented everyone else. Nowhere is this more apparent than in DC, a diverse city with no voice in federal government.

The Washington, DC Admission Act would right this wrong, making DC the 51st state and giving it the same rights enjoyed by other states, including two senators in Congress and a voting representative in the House. After more than 200 years of systemic inequality faced by DC residents, its time for change.

Most Americans support these election reforms, but the path to passing these bills is long and difficult. Our congressional leaders are cleaved by bitter partisan divide, and the filibuster rule has left the minority party with outsized control and very little interest in representing the public.

But failure is not an option. Without a functioning democracy, none of our other hopesfor health, safety, clean air and water, good jobs, education, a stable climateare possible. What can we do?

Posted in: Science Advocacy, Science and Democracy Tags: Democracy Reform, election reform, Voting rights

Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.

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How to Stop the Dismantling of Democracy - Union of Concerned Scientists - Union of Concerned Scientists

You cannot tell the truth about beauty in England without the ugliest people in the country threatening you. The National Trust is the custodian of the beautiful best of the nations heritage. Let it compile a historical record on how many of the stately homes of England were connected to the slave trade and Conservative MPs demand a Putinesque panel of patriots to purge elitist bourgeois liberals from cultural life.

Our Orwellian culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, feeds the beasts in his base as he delivers lectures on what versions of history we must remember. Meanwhile, the trustees of museums are told to sign loyalty pledges backing government policies. All because researchers challenge the prejudices of the ruling party by accurately describing British history.

Manchester City are the most beautiful football team in England probably the world and deservedly won another Premier League title last week. City have the best manager anyone can remember and from Ederson in goal to Phil Foden up front, players of sublime skill and enviable courage and self-control.

When football correspondents investigate how that success is built on the money directed to the club by the petro-princeling Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, all hell breaks loose. Fans dont want to hear about the connection between the beauty of the play on the field and a deputy prime minister from the United Arab Emirates, which bans political opponents, jails dissidents and enforces state-sponsored misogyny. They do not want to know that UAE wealth comes not only from oil, tourism and financial services, but from the labour system in the Gulf states that isnt quite slavery but too close to it for comfort. Foreign nationals account for 88% of the UAEs population. Those who leave their employers without permission face punishments for absconding and, in the words of Human Rights Watch, are acutely vulnerable to forced labour.

Sport and culture are becoming like gangsters molls. You can admire the beauty but must stay away from the suffering behind the spectacle.

Try starting a conversation about how Manchester City could afford the biggest single-season wage bill in English football history (351.4m in 2019-20) and an estimated 1.036bn (890m) invested in transfer indemnities to sign the squads current players and watch as the abuse descends.

One football writer pointed me to this seasons Champions League semi-final between the UAEs Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, owned by the rulers of Qatar. He said that one day historians would go through the television and press coverage and notice how few journalists discussed the fundamental fact that plutocratic and dictatorial states were using sport to burnish their image.

I can see why people want to avert their eyes. Are Manchester City fans meant to stop supporting their team when Gulf money turns it from an also-ran into a world-beater? The journalists who report on its finances do not say that. They just do their job: presenting the truth that in England and France, regimes that combine avarice and oppression in equal measure control the best clubs. The National Trusts report on the links between its properties and slavery and colonialism was scholarly and dry. As with honest football reporters, the historians merely presented the evidence. Yet Conservatives reacted like the most fanatical City fans when their own beautiful myths were questioned.

You only have to see how rarely the empire appears in popular fiction to know that imperial nostalgia has not provoked the backlash. Instead of nostalgia, we have imperial amnesia: a desire to hide from the ugliness of the past. Accurate histories of empire puncture the Scottish sense of victimhood and the English belief in the quaintness and decency of our civilisation. According to the national myth, country homes were the backdrops for charming love affairs and eccentric dukes rather than monuments built on the broken backs of enslaved men and women.

A worldly observer might say slaves built the Parthenon and that tithes the medieval church extracted from a poverty-stricken peasantry paid for the Gothic cathedrals. Just as there is a crime behind every great fortune, so there is an unjust society behind every work of beauty. Better to accept that than become a bitter, puritanical nag who cannot see others enjoying the beauties of a country estate or of football played at the highest level without wanting to ruin their pleasure.

But we can afford to be worldly about the monuments of classical Athens and medieval Christendom because they are from lost civilisations. Britains past and footballs present matter because racism and the power of plutocracy are vital and vicious forces that surround us. The response to journalists and historians who report the facts is not therefore a shrug of the shoulders, but a consuming fury. Conservatives who decry woke censorship now sound like the most intolerant of leftists, as they demand purges and authorised histories.

Manchester City fans, meanwhile, have become a raging force on social media. As well as cheering on their team, they cheer on their teams owners and chant Mansours name. In my home city, there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of people willing to engage in power worship at its most demeaning and to whitewash an autocratic state solely because it pays for exquisite football.

Ive had the most sustained toxic abuse Ive ever seen in my life when I investigated City, one football reporter told me. Fans put the home addresses of journalists on the internet, while in one instance bricks were thrown through a reporters window. The Football Writers Association has contacted Manchester City three times about the abuse directed at its members. The club was concerned and courteous in its replies. However, it sounds like the Tory right, and every dictatorship whether in the Gulf or not, as it fuels fans anger with conspiratorial talk of organised and clear attempts to damage the clubs reputation and threats to hire the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue the football authorities if they dare challenge Manchester Citys interests.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, wrote John Keats. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. In Britain, however, when beautiful national myths and the beautiful game are questioned, truth is always the first casualty of the culture war.

Nick Cohen is an Observer columnist

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Manchester City play beautiful football but it masks the ugliness of their owners - The Guardian

San Jose (California): In October 2016, John Doe (name changed), a principal engineer at Cisco, was informed by two co-workers that his boss, Sundar Iyer, had told them that he was a Dalit.

Often called untouchables, Dalits lie at the bottom of the caste hierarchy in Indias dominant Hindu religion. Although the caste system was officially abolished in 1950, the socio-economic oppression against Dalits has persisted for decades.

At Ciscos San Jose headquarters in California, Doe was subjected to caste discrimination and received less pay, fewer opportunities, and other inferior terms and conditions of employment. When he went to complain against his treatment, the upper-caste boss retaliated by reducing his role.

When the new dominant caste boss Ramana Kompella took charge, the discrimination continued unabated. He was given assignments that were impossible to complete under the circumstances.

Doe was not the only one to experience caste discrimination at Cisco. Praveen (name changed), a 40-year-old software developer has a different story but altogether a similar experience. In 2018, he asked one of his colleagues if he would like to go out for drinks- to which, the colleague, responded, I only go for drinks with my Brahmin friend group.

Most of the times, Parveen says, the upper caste employees would ignore talking to the Dalit employees.

Even the office badminton team mostly consisted of Brahmins from across India and only some kind of people were excluded, he says, referring to his caste.

Praveen and Does ordeal is no different from that of other members of the Dalit community, who live, work and study in the US and face similar caste discrimination almost on a daily basis. But Does case caught public attention and made it into US media after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Cisco Systems Inc. in July 2020, accusing the company of discriminating against a Dalit employee.

A century ago, in 1916, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, considered by many to be the tallest and the most important leader in 20th century India, spoke at an anthropology seminar of Alexander Goldenweiser in New York. He said, If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem. And so it has, especially in the west.

Almost a century later, Equality Labs, a Dalit community organization based in New York, conducted a survey on caste discrimination in the US and found harrowing levels of discrimination faced by Dalit students and employees across the country. Ranging from disparaging comments to assault, they had seen it all. The report was released in 2018.

But for many dominant caste individuals and their organisations in the US, caste discrimination doesnt exist at all. They are part of a bloc that is at the forefront of whitewashing the caste system and erasing its deeply violent history by having a religious sanction.

The events in Cisco must not be dismissed as a one-off incident. It must be seen as another incident in a series of attempts to erase conversations on caste among the diaspora.

I was discussing with one of my Brahmin colleagues in the US and I heard him making the same merit and creamy layer arguments that they make against affirmative action back home. He said that the rich Blacks are taking away benefits from the poor Blacks. said 40-year old Ramesh*, from San Francisco while pointing out the hypocrisy of upper caste diaspora Indians criticising affirmative action from a place of privilege.

This is extremely hypocritical because blacks and Latinos paved the way for immigration safeguards that Indians conveniently use as they belong to the racial minority in the US. By rallying against laws like Prop 16 and supporting Republican candidates, they throw Blacks and Latinos, and by extension Dalits, under the bus, Ramesh* added.

Hindu American Foundation (HAF), a Washington-based advocacy group that claims to educate the public about Hindus and Hinduism, is one of the main organisations leading this effort.

In the latest episode of caste erasure in the US, the HAF came out in support of Cisco Systems. The company was charged with not providing a discrimination-free atmosphere to a Dalit employee. But it seems this did not sit well with the HAF, which filed a suit to engage in the trial on Ciscos side, claiming that the State was wrong to tie caste with religion.

This is not the first time the HAF has sided with casteist perpetrators. In 2019, Brandeis University, a private academic university in Massachusetts, declared that it will extend its anti-discrimination policies to cover caste. The university said that it is reacting to the growing cases of casteism. In their anti-discrimination policies, the University now acknowledges caste affiliation as a recognised and protected characteristic.

HAF pushed back against it, even though, in their statement, Brandeis University Office of Equal Opportunity did not mention Hinduism at all. They only said they want to include caste as a protected category against discrimination.

Attempting to impose a policy on caste-based discrimination risks singling out, targeting, and unwittingly discriminated against Hindu students and faculty as presumed offenders, HAF said in a statement. As to why the HAF believes it must defend casteist practices, or even fight against caste discrimination, one can only speculate. Mind you, the HAF says it rejects all kinds of oppression based on caste; however, caste is not an inherently discriminatory concept.

Of course, for an organisation filled with dominant-caste individuals, the problem of caste would remain a nonexistent, unimportant issue. It is akin to asking a white-only, conservative crowd if they appreciate affirmative action.

For them (HAF), an attack on the caste system is tantamount to an attack on Hinduism. They just want to legitimise caste discrimination, S Karthikeyan of Ambedkar King Study Circle said. The Study circle, based out of California, has been at the forefront of fighting caste prejudices in the US. Their website lists out their extensive works and is an indisputable asset for people looking to understand the vast complexities of the caste structure in India.

They have no objections when temples in Dallas host religious ceremonies for Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vyasas alone but choose to express opposition in the Cisco case in the name of all Hindu Americans, showing that it does not see John Doe in that category, he added.

To repeat, these are not one-off incidents. And this is where the HAF comes in.

Caste Erasure

In 2016, the HAF along with other Hindu organisations in America wanted to erase the word Dalit from the California Board of Educations textbooks. The proposed curriculum edits of HAF and other petitioners on their side entailed the invalidation of the caste systems religious roots.

They aimed to hide the subcontinents history of caste apartheid, gender disparity and sectarian violence. They want to change the mention of the Indus Valley Civilisation to Sindh-Saraswati, delete any mention of Guru Nanaks challenge to casteism, erasing the social reformer Nanaks very prominent repudiation of Brahmanism.

This would not just erase Sikh identity and suppress Sikhisms autonomy, but also erase the visible opposition the caste system received well before the colonists arrived; contrary to the HAFs position which is that the Hindu religion only had Varna, and the British made the caste system as rigid as it is today. The Varna system, in theory, divided the society based on a persons occupation. However, the product of this system was caste, which remains to this day. And the caste system was well in place much, much before the British ever set foot outside the Isles, let alone when they came to the Indian subcontinent.

(For a simple, lucid understanding of the theory of Varna, please click here.)

Uberoi Foundation, one of the HAF partners in the textbook case, suggested edits to the curriculum, saying, Dalit is not a term from Sanskrit, nor from Hindu social history but a contemporary political construct to gain leverage mostly in elections and for economic concessions.

Valmiki was a Dalit & a theif [sic], who recognised the ill of his ways and later became a poet and is the author to one of the most famous poems that we now know as the Ramayana. Due to his changed conduct, he no longer belonged to the Dalits and changed his varna to become a Brahmin, the Uberoi Foundation suggested in an attempt to fool the West into believing that caste is a burden one can easily slip out of.

HAFs support for the caste system is also visible from its support for the Shankaracharya of Kamakoti Peetham. On his website, the Shankaracharya not only sanctions the caste system as an integral part of Hindu religion but also writes: The sastras lay down separate rites and practices for the four jatis (that is the four varnas). This means that within the fold of the same religion, Hinduism, there are numerous differences. Food cooked by one caste is not to be eaten by the another. A young man belonging to one jati is not to marry a girl belonging to another. The vocation practised by one jati is not to be practiced by the another. The differences are indeed far too many.

Once again, we are reminded of how in the past, the white leadership denied African-Americans the right to define themselves, and instead expediently chose derogatory terms. The HAF and the Uberoi Foundation believe there is no caste discrimination in Hinduism, yet cite and twist an example from Hindu history to suit their agenda. In this context, the words of Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a leader of a coalition that includes Dalits, Sikhs and Muslims, ring true. There is no way that one would self-govern yourself into oppression, she said in a New York Times article.

Other Dalits also point out how upper-caste Hindus go to any lengths to deflect and delegitimise caste-based oppression. Sharing an incident of caste erasure, Ramesh reflected on an incident in his workplace. In the 20 years that Ive been in the US and working for the IT sector, Ive noticed that every time I bring up caste, the upper caste diaspora Indian will try to shift the conversation. Once in my office, I was explaining what caste is to an American colleague, a Brahmin woman jumped into the conversation and relentlessly tried to prove that caste discrimination is a thing of the past and nobody even knows their caste anymore. When asked why she uses a caste name as her last name, she did not have an answer and tried to deflect the conversation by bashing reservations as the primary reason for casteism.

In a statement on the textbook campaign, the HAF conflates the Dalit community with Christian missionaries and anti-Hindu forces, dismissing Dalits agency, and commenting on their choice to convert to escape the shackles of caste. It is the othering of the Christian community and an intolerant branding of the Christian members of the Dalit community as missionaries.

Like many caste apologists on the Hindu nationalist front, HAF claims that as a consequence of European contact, caste categories emerged; and those categories are, among other factors, the result of colonial prejudice and religious discrimination.

Dominant caste Hindu leaders suggest problems with caste bias are confined to recent immigrants, rather than US-born Indian Americans, or deny that any institutional discrimination against Dalits occurs in America.

However, organisations like the Ambedkar International Center Inc. (AIC) believe religion intrinsically carries caste in it. In America, dominant caste individuals practise caste with absolute impunity.

Performing a supremacist thread ceremony that is only for Brahmin men, lionising vegetarianism as a virtue (and demonising consumption of meat), celebrating upper-caste classical arts, and holidays with notions of good vs evil (that stem from the oppression of Dalit communities) are some of the ways in which upper caste Hindus establish their cultural presence as a community in the US. Such behaviors also create a hostile workplace for Dalit co-workers, Sanjay Kumar, president of Maryland based Ambedkar International Centre said.

Also, it would be pertinent to remind everyone that caste is not a commodity to trade, exchange or replace. It does not change. It is nigh impossible for a Dalit to change or adopt another caste since caste and its associated social and economic discrimination is externally imposed by upper caste communities on the lower caste people. The thousands of caste atrocity cases reported in India every year is a testimony of what a rigid structure it is.

In its blogs, HAF writes praises of Upanayanam, a casteist ritual where upper caste men are made to wear a sacred thread. The thread ceremony is only for Brahmins and remains a visible caste marker. Another blog glorifies Karma, a tenet of Hinduism often used by dominant-caste individuals as a sorry excuse for their privilege and to gaslight Dalits.

Many other blogs on HAF talk of vegetarianism, and meat-eating, something espoused by Sheetal Shah, Managing Director & CFO of HAF, frequently on her Facebook, again stems from caste. In India, Vegetarianism is practiced by only about 20% of the population, despite Western stereotypes about India and vegetarianism. The rationale that drives vegetarianism among Hindus is not sustainability, but caste. Indias vegetarianism derives from Brahmanism and the caste system. Only among the affluent, urban and dominant castes is vegetarianism popular. That is also the case because, in most communities, eating meat such as beef and pork is mostly looked down on.

Dominant-caste diasporas caste apologia

Suhag Shukla the executive director of HAF applauds the goodness of caste. Some sort of caste tradition might give people a sense of solidarity or a way of relating to one another is a force for good, she wrote on her Twitter. Suhag and her husband Aseem Shukla, both HAF members, have often tried to Savarna-splain (think in terms of a privileged White male telling a Black man what real racism is) Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundarajan, founder of Equality Labs, calling her a Hinduphobe and unleashing a right-wing troll army on her.

HAF publicly started targeting Equality Labs and its founder after it published its caste survey in 2018.

The survey on caste discrimination was the first of its kind that directly addressed casteism in the US. Twenty-five per cent of surveyed Dalits said they had been verbally or physically assaulted, One in 3 were discriminated against during their education, Two in 3 were discriminated against at workplaces. Sixty per cent had experienced derogatory jokes or comments, and 40 per cent and 14 per cent of Dalits and Shudras were unwelcome in their places of worship.

Suhag, while targeting the prominent Dalit organisation said that the survey unnecessarily essentialises and villainises Hinduism. The single most problematic issue with this survey is that it traffics in the most dangerous and false tropes about Hinduism, she said.

Rajiv Pandit, another HAF board membertried to defame Dalit activist Suraj Yengde, going so far as to writing to Harvard University to cancel his fellowship on the grounds of Hinduphobia, a social construct they have created themselves to target people who speak against caste and religious oppression.

HAFs caste makeup is nearly exclusively dominant-caste, and it reflects the views of those who have benefited from caste privilege for decades. As an organisation with virtually no representation of those they are commenting on, the erasure doesnt stem out of ignorance, but out of apologia and whitewashing.

In 2010, HAF released its Not Cast In Caste report in which it claimed that caste inequality bears no foundation in Hindu scriptures.

The report states that the caste system is not an integral part of Hinduism, a position that was dismissed by many Hindu speakers abroad. It further called anti-caste forces Christian Missionaries, anti-Hindu and Marxists. Hindu American Foundation (HAF) considers it imperative that any discussion on caste must be balanced by also considering the Hindu perspective of the problem, since the debate currently tends to be dominated by non-Hindu and often, anti-Hindu views, such as those of Marxists and Christian missionaries both of whom often malign Hinduism.

HAF has written various blogs and hosted podcasts that erase caste in Hinduism, however, most of them have no actual basis in facts. Many Hindu leaders have also attacked them over this selective learning of Hinduism. In their podcast, Thats so Hindu, titled What we can do to end caste discrimination, the interviewer is Suhag Shukla, a dominant-caste individual, and the speaker is Guru Prakash Paswan, spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, ruling Hindutva nationalist party that has been working to foreground caste hierarchy in India.

In a podcast discussing caste, how is a dominant-caste person fit to ask questions about atrocities? Imagine if, in the United States, a discussion on race and politics featured a statement on the lines of: We consider it imperative that a discussion on caste must be balanced by also considering the White perspective of the problem since the debate currently tends to be dominated by non-White, often anti-White views. If the views of the White people are not central to anti-racism discussions, why do upper-caste Hindus feel they have the right to be involved in and dictate anti-caste discussions?

In its blogs, HAF frequently dismisses the extent of caste implications in Western countries, even though numerous testimonies of people prove that caste discrimination is very much a reality outside of South Asia.

Even UK lawmakers wanted to intervene in the matter of caste-bias in the 2010s. A state-commissioned study found plenty of evidence of caste-based inequality in public life in 2010. The report advocated that the most successful way to address discrimination is to pass laws against this kind of discrimination. The UK government then developed a legislative timetable.

However, the government of Theresa May denied making this legislation in 2018 due to its low prevalence, i.e. only 3 cases of recorded caste-based discrimination. They also said the commission could not arrive at a universally accepted definition of caste.

But, its tough to miss the UK Hindu Nationalist outcry against this legislation. Like HAF, they too called it a colonial conspiracy and jumped on the Hinduphobia bandwagon.

It must be stressed again that on principle, the HAF claims to oppose caste-based discrimination. However, such claims ring hollow since the HAF liberally references the Manusmriti on their website.

Manusmriti sanctions horrifying discrimination and brutalities against lower caste and Dalit (avarna) people that Dalit leader and author of Indias constitution created a manusmriti burning ritual. In its guide on Understanding Hinduism, HAF references manusmriti as The Manu Smriti is one of earliest texts but is still regarded as most authoritative. (pg 8). Elsewhere in the report, HAF considers Manusmriti authoritative enough to refer to it for deriving fundamental values of Hindu religion from it see: An authoritative source, the Manu Smriti lists Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (not acquiring illegitimate wealth), Shoucham (purity), and Indriya-Nigraha (control of senses) as the five qualities that constitutes a universal dharma.

Hindu Nationalism and Selective Outrage

Its pertinent to note that HAF has issued statements, written blogs and recorded podcasts about almost all the major issues including the Citizenship Amendment Act, Babri Mosque verdict, abrogation of Article 370, but doesnt even once mention the gang rape and murder of Dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, which made international headlines over increasing caste atrocities in India.

Curiously, I checked how many caste atrocities they have spoken up against over the last 6 years. Unsurprisingly, from Khairlanji to Rohit Vemula to Hathras, HAF mentions none of these painful tragedies. Is Hindu American Foundation working for all Hindus then? Why does Kashmiri Pandit exodus pain them so much that it is referenced about 30 times when you search the term on their websitebut Hathras or any other caste atrocity doesnt make the cut to even draw a small paragraph? It would be foolish to dismiss the pains and tribulations of the Kashmiri Pandits, but it is impossible to not pay attention to the fact that they are Pandits i.e. upper-caste Hindus. The HAF is pained not because Hindus suffered because then they would have felt the same pain for the Hathras victim too. The HAF is pained because Pandits can never suffer.

HAFs positions on various matters mirror the Hindu Nationalist fringe, but it does so with absolute hypocrisy. For instance, the HAF defends anti-conversion laws enacted by the BJP in India that targets minority religions as it opposes conversion out of Hinduism but supports conversion to Hinduism, echoing the Hindutva view on the topic.

It also has a widespread campaign for the propagation of Hinduism in America but opposes Christian missionaries in India, curiously making the argument that poor, uneducated people in India are gullible to the machinations of evangelists (and not of Hindus?). For them, the Hindutva-promoted cow protection movement in India, which has led to the lynchings of many Muslims and Dalits over the last six years, is not even worthy of condemnation.

The Indian diaspora in America is depicted in literature as a community of educated, highly trained migrants chasing the American Dream. The model minority is praised for their hard work and successes, but what goes unnoticed is their reflexive attachment to caste identities.

The Hindu American Foundation on one hand supports Black Lives Matter, as it should, but on the other hand, is hypocritical in whitewashing caste. Its board members write articles, issue statements to denounce police brutality on the Black Lives Matter protestors, but when it comes to condemning the police violence on Dalits in India, they dont even utter a word.

They will only support Black Lives Matter as long as it is convenient to them, and as long as it benefits them, says Praveen.

But they will ignore every Hathras or caste atrocity that happens because it will never affect them, he adds.

The author is based out of the United States of America. Views are personal.

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Why does the Hindu American Foundation obfuscate caste reality? - EastMojo

One of the first signs of the military coup that overthrew Myanmars democratically elected civilian government was a Facebook Live video of regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han being arrested, which was posted by her husband.

Soldiers stormed Pa Pa Hans home around 3 am on February 1. While her young daughter wailed and her husband pleaded to see an arrest warrant, Pa Pa Han stalwartly grabbed her handbag and a coat and left with the soldiers.

Other parliamentarians were simultaneously being roused from bed and arrested across Myanmar by soldiers who claimed election fraud had occurred in the November elections. By daybreak, Myanmar was under military rule.

Ever since, thousands of people in Myanmar most of them young, many of them women have been protesting the coup daily and demanding the restoration of democracy. More than 770 civilians had been killed and over 3,738 detained as of May 6, according to the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Myanmar, formerly called Burma, is a conservative country with rigid gender roles. A 2015 survey rated it Southeast Asias most traditional society when it comes to family structure, deference to elders, respect for authority figures and conflict avoidance.

Yet Myanmars Generation Z activists, born between 1997 to 2012, are defying many of these social norms with their protests and busting gender stereotypes while they are at it.

One act of creative resistance on March 8 involved hanging womens sarongs on clotheslines above streets across Yangon. The young protesters suspected that many soldiers would avoid going underneath the clotheslines for fear that doing so would diminish their hpon a kind of mojo that belongs to only men.

They guessed right: Soldiers sent to arrest the protesters climbed atop their army trucks to clear the clotheslines before passing underneath, giving protesters extra time to avoid arrest.

Such beliefs around hpon reflect a pervasive concept in Myanmar that men are superior to women and born with special spiritual protection. In a 2015 Asia Barometer survey, 60% of Myanmar respondents agreed that if they could have only one child, a boy would be preferable, compared with 46% in the Philippines and 30% in Cambodia.

Having grown up in Myanmar, I was raised to believe in these same gender roles and sexist superstitions. After being exposed to a United States liberal arts education, I came to question the gender inequality buried in traditions and Burmese culture. Now, as a psychologist who teaches about sex and gender, among other topics, I am tracking how Myanmars young protesters are rejecting sexism and subverting gender norms to their advantage.

After the sarong tactic, some of those activists questioned whether using sarongs to deter the soldiers might itself have been sexist because it played into old misogynistic superstitions. Shortly after the March 8 protest, activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi wrote on Twitter that womens clothing should be flown proudly as our flag, our victory not used as a weapon.

Spousal rape and domestic violence are still legal and pervasive in Myanmar, and when it occurs people often blame the victims rather than the perpetrators.

On April 20, a 17-year-old coup protester named Shwe Yamin Htet, who had just been released from jail after six days, reported on social media that a 19-year-old female protester detained with her had been beaten with a metal pipe and kicked in her groin and that her vagina was bleeding due to the kicking.

Rather than express outrage at the assault, some on social media worried that publicizing the young womens sexual abuse would bring shame to her and asked Shwe to remove the post. She did not oblige.

A few women have defied the odds to obtain power in Myanmar including the countrys deposed leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who came to power in 2012. Rather than seeing her as an inspirational symbol of womens leadership, however, researchers Mala Htun and Francesca Jensenius reported in their 2020 study that most people in Myanmar view Aung San Suu Kyi simply as an exception.

Before the coup, women held 15% of political posts in Myanmars civilian government. Now, just one woman sits on the coup regimes 17-member state administration council.

The military has run Myanmar as a dictatorship on and off since 1962. In addition to airstrikes and attacks with heavy artillery, it is known to use sexual violence as a weapon in its long-standing effort to crush separatist movements in the border regions of Myanmar.

Self-identifying ethnic Burmese make up 32% of the population. For nearly six decades, several ethnic minority groups the Kachin, Karen and Karenni have been fighting for autonomy and self-determination. For just as long, the Myanmar army has violently suppressed them.

Human rights groups report widespread and systematic rape in Karen state, in southwest Myanmar, over many decades. When women are captured by the military, soldiers use them as porters to carry shells during the day. At night, they may be gang-raped.

In Kayah state, another conflict zone north of Karen, women generally do not go out alone even for basics like groceries, because the military is known to target women.

The military oppression and gender violence so familiar to rural Burmese in conflict zones is now affecting the urban middle and working classes groups that were long sheltered from the countrys borderland conflicts. On April 24, soldiers were reported to have physically abused a transgender woman who spoke out against the coup online, forcing her to change into male clothing before arresting her.

Despite the risks, women continue to participate in the front lines of Myanmars fight for democracy.

Some have been arrested, including Thin Thin Aung, co-founder of a leading independent news site called Mizzima, and union leader Myo Myo Aye. Others were shot dead, like Khukhu Cilena, of the womens rights group Women for Justice.

After the coup, a group of pro-democracy advocates formed a parallel government called the National Unity Government led by the elected lawmakers, which is financially supporting the civil disobedience movement. Myanmars opposition lawmakers are also busting glass ceilings: Ethnic minority party affiliates make up 25% of its 32 members, women make up 28%, and one member identifies as LGBT a first in Myanmar.

The National Unity Government and Generation Z offer Burmese society a vision of a more equitable, inclusive future should democracy prevail.

Ei Hlaing is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Lynchburg.

This article first appeared on The Conversation.

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Myanmars anti-coup protesters are exploiting the militarys patriarchal values to their advantage - Scroll.in

Its parent idea, critical theory, was concocted by Marxist intellectuals of the mid-20th century in the aftermath of disillusionment with revolutionary socialism as actually practiced behind the Iron Curtain. Some scholars and activists began applying their new ideas to the judicial system, yielding critical legal studies. Others concluded that prior Marxist analysis had focused too much on class at the expense of other structures of oppression, devising critical race theory (and even more narrow and esoteric applications) not only as an approach to radical scholarship but also as a guide to radical political action.

What does all this have to do with the public-policy conversation in North Carolina? Plenty unfortunately.

Do you believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion? So do I, at least when the terms are properly defined. Surrounding yourself with people of differing views and backgrounds is often good for you. It can make organizations and teams stronger. I also think people ought to be treated fairly, that they shouldnt be discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, or other characteristics that have nothing to do with performing a job well. And I think its best to include, not exclude. Dont you agree?

These beliefs are, alas, not what the current Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion movement is all about. Much of it is just critical race theory rigorously and sometimes ruthlessly applied to workplaces, government, philanthropy, and the social sector. It assumes statistical disparities must be the product of discriminatory practices and attitudes deeply embedded in our social structures. Therefore, it embraces the use of discriminatory practices and attitudes as the only proper response.

Let me explain that latter point more clearly. If disparities of outcomes are a sufficient proof of systemic racism and other forms of structural oppression, then the only way to know if the oppression has been dismantled would be for those disparities to go away. The logical goal must be an equality of results, not just an equality of opportunity. If that requires ongoing discrimination against privileged groups racial and ethnic preferences in hiring, contracting, and higher education, for example so be it.

Its all utter nonsense. Its based on simplistic and easily discredited analysis, and employs crude tools such as implicit bias tests that are both methodologically unsound and highly destructive of real human relationships.

Still, Id pay little attention to critical race theorists if they confined their nonsense to scarcely read journals and sparsely attended classes. In a free society, we all have an equal right to be very, very wrong.

But critical race theory has now spread far beyond the cloister. Its advocates seek to transform corporate governance, our justice system, and the curriculum of our public schools. Its assumptions are incompatible with freedom, liberal education, and equality under the law. Those assumptions must be fully revealed, clearly understood, and relentlessly opposed.

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John Hood: Race theory Is dangerous nonsense Neuse News - Neuse News

ANKARA - Turkeys foreign minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks aimed at overcoming a years-long diplomatic rift.

Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to hold talks in the kingdom after years of tensions between the two regional powers, which are also at odds over Turkish support for Qatar in a dispute with its Gulf neighbours and over President Tayyip Erdogans backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned in Saudi Arabia.

Turkish officials had said Cavusoglus visit could include talks on possible sales of Turkish drones to Saudi Arabia, which they said Riyadh had requested. The current violent clashes in Jerusalem may also overshadow the bilateral talks.

In Saudi Arabia to discuss bilateral relations and important regional issues, especially the attacks at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the oppression against the Palestinian people, Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia.

Qatars emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, also visited Saudi Arabias Jeddah on Monday evening and met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz to discuss bilateral ties and regional and international matters of common interest.

Qatar has close relations with Turkey and may be facilitating the latters talks with Riyadh, after the two Gulf countries reached in January a breakthrough in a three-year-old dispute. A statement issued by the emirs office did not give further details.

More than 300 Palestinians were wounded on Monday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, as Palestinian protesters threw rocks and Israeli police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets outside al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Later in the day, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said it had fired rockets into Israel, triggering warning sirens in Jerusalem and near the Gaza border, in an apparent response to the Palestinian injuries.

Erdogan said on Saturday the ongoing clashes showed Israel was a terror state, and that Ankara was working to mobilise international institutions.

On Monday he spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, state-owned Anadolu agency said.

Overcoming turbulence

Cavusoglus trip was initially intended to focus on mending bilateral ties that soured when Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi journalist was killed in Istanbul in 2018.

Erdogan said at the time the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government a charge Saudi Arabia rejects. Ankara tried to exploit the case politically as much as it could to the displeasure of Saudi Arabia.

The crisis prompted an unofficial Saudi trade boycott which slashed the value of Turkish imports by 98%. Saudi Arabia is also closing eight Turkish schools in the kingdom, Anadolu reported last month.

Cavusoglus two-day visit follows Turkeys talks last week with Egypt, another US-allied regional power, also aimed at repairing troubled relations.

Though Turkey is apparently seeking to improve ties with Saudi Arabia, political analysts argue Ankara is following a set of contradictory approaches in its relationship with Riyadh.

While displaying intent to surmount the legacy of past problems, Ankara is still trying to impose its regional policies.

Turkey has given its support for Gulf reconciliation and which it hoped would provide it with an opportunity to return to the region through the front door. But it has not taken any tangible steps to show good faith, whether at the political level nor in the media, nor especially on the ground through its network of relations in Yemen or the Horn of Africa.

Turkish support for groups and militias linked to the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the factors that have hindered the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement. This support has not eased tensions within Yemens legitimacy camp and flies in the face of the Saudi plan to speed a Yemeni political settlement that ensures Riyadhs national security and curtails Iranian influence in the strategic region.

According to media reports, Turkey supports the continuation of chaos in Yemen until it secures a strategic foothold for itself in the region.

Ankara has also enhanced its intelligence presence in the region by sending security officers under various covers, including humanitarian missions, such as working for the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation.

The matter does not stop at Yemen nor at obstructing a political settlement there that would enable Riyadh to exit with the least possible damage. Turkish activities blocking the interests of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have become more obvious in the Horn of Africa, with a focus on securing positions in Somalia and Djibouti.

Last year, Saudi businessmen endorsed an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods in response to what they called hostility from Ankara, slashing the value of trade by 98%.

A senior Turkish official said that the trade embargo and the conflicts in Syria and Libya would be discussed with the Saudis as Cavusoglu visits Riyadh. A Saudi request for Turkish armed drones may also be on the agenda, two Turkish officials said.

Erdogan said in March Saudi Arabia sought to buy Turkish armed unmanned aerial vehicles. Several countries have shown interest in the drones, which were used in conflicts in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.

A foreign diplomat in Riyadh said the Saudis wanted to use Turkish drones against Iran-aligned Houthi militias in Yemen, and would discuss buying Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones.

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Turkey's top diplomat embarks on fence-mending visit to Riyadh | | AW - The Arab Weekly